Citations
- 26 F. Supp. 491
Full opinion text
WOODWARD, District Judge.
The information charges the defendants with criminal contempt for a wilful disobedience of the injunctive decree of this court entered April 6, 1932. An order to show cause was entered. Before responding to the order to show cause the defendants appeared and severally, with the exception of Vitagraph, Inc., and Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., and moved the Court for an order requiring the Government to furnish the defendants a bill of particulars.
The information avers.that the defendants Balaban & Katz Corporation and B & K Management Corporation are exhibitors of motion picture films in what is known in the motion picture trade as the Chicago Exchange Territory and in the Chicago first run zone. The other defendants, except Barney Balaban, are distributors of motion picture films throughout the United States, having exchanges located at Chicago, Illinois, from which films are distributed to the defendant exhibitors. Barney Balaban is the President and director of the defendant exhibitors as well as of Paramount Pictures, Inc., one of the distributor defendants.
The Chicago Exchange Territory embraces the entire' State of Illinois, the northern part of Indiana, the southern part of Wisconsin and the northeastern part of Missouri. For the purpose of the distribution and exhibition of motion picture films the country is divided into zones, known as Metropolitan zones, for first run exhibitions. These zones include and surround key cities in which one or more large, modern, well-equipped motion picture theatres are operated. The Chicago first run zone, or Chicago zone, includes all of Cook, Lake and DuPage Counties, Illinois, and Lake County, Indiana.- First run pictures, also called first class feature pictures, or feature pictures, are those produced by the aid of expert directing and acting talent, with expert, technical assistance, having a minimum length - of five reels, the first run, or continuous first run, of which in first class motion picture theatres will attract a substantial attendance at the maximum admission price. In licensing films for exhibition the distributor, by contract with the exhibitors, designates the relative dates on which the various theatres within the zone shall be permitted to play the given film. These are what is known as first run, continued 'first run, second run, third run, etc., exhibitions. There may be nine or ten runs before the final run in the zone. The first run, of course, is the initial exhibition of the film. A continued first run is that part of the initial exhibition in the first run zone which occurs in a second theatre immediately following its exhibition in the first theatre. The second and subsequent runs is the exhibition of a film in theatres of the same zone succeeding the initial exhibition. An interval, usually at least seven days, elapses between a first run or a continuous first run and the second run, and a like interval between the second and subsequent runs. The information defines clearance as the method by which first run zones and the respective playing positions of theatres within those zones are established. Being further amplified, it includes the interval or lapse of time which the producer or distributor, as licensor, fixes and determines shall occur between the first and second runs, and the second, third and other runs. In other words the licensor promises the first run exhibitor that a given film will not be exhibited elsewhere in the zone for a given number of days after the preceding run. This is denominated clearance or protection. When clearance is granted on a competitive basis, the first run priority of feature pictures is granted to the theatres which, by virtue of superior size, equipment and location are best able to secure the largest total admission price for the period of the run. Any other clearance is arbitrary •or unreasonable.
The motion picture season commences September 1 and closes August 31 next succeeding.
An affiliated exhibitor is a firm or corporation engaged in the exhibition of motion pictures which is owned, operated or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a producer or distributor of motion picture films. An unaffiliated exhibitor is one engaged in the operation of a motion picture theatre with which neither a producer nor a distributor has any connection. In other words, he is an independent exhibitor.
The theatres in the Chicago loop which have the equipment, seating, capacity and location for the exhibition of first class feature pictures on a first run in the Chicago zone are as follows, ranked according to seating capacity:
Name. Seating Capacity. Operator.
'(1) Chicago 3,900 13. & K. — Paramount
(2) Oriental 3,200 None
(8) Palace 2,700 R. K. O.
(4) State-Lake 2,500 Unaffiliated
(5) McVickers 2,300 Yz B&K — Paramount Yz Unaffiliated
(6) United Artists 1,700 B. & K. — Paramount
(7) Roosevelt 1,500 B. & K. — Paramount
(8) Apollo 1,200 B. & K. — Paramount
(9) Woods 1,100 Unaffiliated
■<10) Garrick 1,000 B. & K. — Paramount.
It will be noted that the State-Lake and Woods are unaffiliated; McVickers is one-half unaffiliated and Oriental is closed. The other loop theatres are all affiliated theatres.
' The defendant distributors control the exhibition in the Chicago Exchange Territory of approximately 90% of first run pictures produced in the United States. No Chicago motion picture exhibitor could ffill the playing time of a first run theatre - in the Chicago loop with ■ feature pictures obtained from other exhibitors. In order that the unaffiliated motion picture exhibitors operating in the Chicago loop could secure first run films it would be necessary for them to have access to a substantial number of first run films distributed by one or more of the defendant distributors.
Neither the State-Lake nor the Woods theatres have been able to secure films for first run exhibition. Exhibitors who have sought to lease the Oriental have been systematically excluded from that privilege. During the current and last two motion picture seasons the State-Lake has been forced to play in third run an